‘We are Israel’. Identity assertions among ethnic groups on the Indo-Myanmar border

Abstract

Among the Kuki, Chin, Zo, Mizo and Hmar, tribal groups living at the borders between India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, accounts depicting an Israelite ancestry have been documented since the 1930s. Bible reading played an important part in these identity assertions for these groups progressively converted to Christianity, introduced by Protestant missionaries in the late 19th century. In recent decades, this religious effervescence has manifested notably through the production of a religious literature through which inspired leaders retrace the migratory path of their ancestors and compare ritual practices described in the Old Testament with those they observed prior to their conversion to Christianity, which were generally labeled as “animistic” by colonial administrators and missionaries. This paper will examine how, in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious context, genealogies are likely to be rewritten and the criteria of race and religion, can be brandished in turn to redefine identities.